Observations and provocations from The Times' Opinion staff

Reaction to Alabama's new immigration law [Most commented]

September 30, 2011 | 2:18
pm

Tensions ran high in response to the editorial board’s opinion on the Alabama immigration law. U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn decided portions of Alabama’s law do not conflict with the federal government’s authority in immigration matters. Therefore:

[E]ffective immediately, state and local police must arrest and detain anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. Schools are required to determine the immigration status of students and provide it to district officials. And immigrants caught without proper identification can be charged with a crime.

Rather than point the finger at Alabama or Blackburn, blame rests mainly with Congress and the Obama administration, according to the editorial board, which believes those parties:

[H]ave largely relegated immigration reform to a war of words, with each side blaming the other for the legislative inertia. As a result, states have been left to provide their own fixes by drafting what has become a national patchwork of regulations. That's hardly the way to deal with the nation's broken immigration system.

The board offers potential solutions, such as securing the border, deporting threatening illegal immigrants and handling the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. Additionally, they suggest:

Lawmakers should enact legislation that would provide a conditional path to legalization for certain young illegal immigrants. Known as the DREAM Act, this law would provide a measure of help to those who serve in the military or attend college and aspire to work legally. And Congress should revisit the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act. That bill would allow farmworkers who are already here to legalize their status if they agree to pay a fine and continue to work in the fields for at least three years.

Hardly any commenters agreed with the board. Opinions ranged from jubilation at the law’s passage to cynicism about its effectiveness. Here are a few examples from the discussion board:

A new chapter of ruthless discrimination

Alabama new immigration law has join the ranks of the Anti-American statue or the Hollywood Black list of the Red Scare, thinly disguised measure of bigotry, hatred, fear, and impotence, masked as being tough. I fully expect thousands of lives to be ruined, innocent or not, and the conservative, racist majority cheering at the carnage, just like the devastation of the internment of the Japanese-American during WW2. If anyone thinks such acts of inhumanity can never happen again, think again. They very well can for Alabama has taken that very first step for this country to start leaping backward on our standard of individual rights for they will not stop with the illegal immigration. On their very long list of red-herring for out problems, they have just target number one and are already getting into their sights number two on down.

-- neoblueleo

Nation-wide reform

The States are taking a patchwork approach to ENFORCING immigration laws, not REFORMING them. The widespread driver for all these actions is for ENFORCEMENT, not REFORM. The states are all very carefully crafting their laws to mirror, complement, support Federal law. That's why they are passing court reviews.

Go Alabama. Show the entire US that enforcement of existing law can and will result in illegal aliens self -deporting, if not to their home countries, then to other states, like California, that haven't acted -- YET.

The sooner we stop making any suggestion that "Comprehensive Immigration Reform"/Amnesty is going to happen, the sooner we start enforcing our clear immigration law, the sooner our immigration mess will start to sort itself out. Getting our national message clear and easy to understand is the most humane policy we can adopt. Illegal aliens can make their life plans knowing their time here out in the open and in the shadows is coming to an end.

-- Kurfco

The U.S should follow international examples

Most modern countries around the world have very very strict immigration laws. Why shouldn't bankrupt America protect itself? This is not 1850, 1950 or even 2007 we do not have the money or the jobs to allow open borders.

--nomoredead

One way or the other

Our governments, local and federal, have been trying to "secure the border" for the last 50 years. It will never happen. As long as there is such a big pay and job differential, the US will always be a magnet. We need to decide--take a draconian stance like Arizona, Alabama, etc. or resign ourselves to becoming a North American nation where everyone enjoys full rights of citizenship.

-- gelato25

Another failure for Obama

Had the Obama administration closed the border and then led a reform effort to provide a generous resolution for those illegals in the U.S. the states would not have undertaken what they have. In the American tradition the enforcement of criminal law is primarily a state function. There's therefore nothing wrongful, draconian, unfair, illegal, un-American, disrespectful, un-Constitutional, blah, blah, blah, whatsoever concerning such state action. Obama's failure is one more reason on a long list to send him packing in November 2012. I can't wait to exercise my legal vote.

-- Bear_3

Democratic irony

What amazes me is how Democrats claim to be the party of the American Worker and then they flood the labor market with illegal aliens who proceed to take American jobs. Vote to close the borders, punish companies that hire illegals and deport all illegals as they are found.

-- zapit123

A chance to rebuild America

This is a great day for America, one that we should cherish for all our lives. The United States has been violated by massive, covert migrations of illegal immigrants for decades now. These foreign nationals have cruelly ripped apart our borders and in an unusual display of hubris dared to challenge our sovereign right to enforce our immigration laws. Of course, there are many "immigrants" that work very hard in areas of the economy abandoned long ago by our own citizenry but for every alien picking strawberries or packing meat there are several others taking jobs that Americans DO want and DO deserve. Let us come together and hold hands as one nation under God and implement E-verify, 287(g) and I-9 audits from sea to shining sea so that we can begin the Great Exodus and renew our destiny!

-- NativoLopezIX

It’s time to face the truth

They will NEVER secure the border.

They've had 30 years to do it and still over 300,000 people per year successfully sneak across the Mexican border.

The far-left wants as many illegals as possible for their Marxist political base. The far-right wants a huge supply of cheap labor. All the working men and women in the middle class get screwed by the massive influx of cheap labor that drives down wages.

If you're a legal citizen and you work hard and play by the rules, you get screwed -- again! The far-left and the far-right are both your enemies.

Now the left is saying that AMNESTY will solve the problem. They've been lying about this for 30 years. They're still lying, just like those on the right.

Nobody represents the hard working legal citizens of this country. Nobody cares about you -- unless you're here illegally.